Chapter 54

The Strange Engineer

Lykan had been on prison detail ever since he ended the war with the Azani. Everything first started when after one month’s time of recuperation he still was unable to heal his meridian channels within his body. From there it was a short quick process to find out that he was no longer fit for duty as an officer. Normally this would be more than enough to start the medical discharge paperwork for the officer who was damaged beyond repair while in the line of duty. Such officers were normally made examples of and given a retirement fund to draw upon for the rest of their lives. The only problem was they, the powers that be, didn’t want to release Lykan from his military service.

Some of the ones who dissented from the disability claims cited that he only signed up under a bronze enlistment anyways. They then pointed out that his promotion from bronze to gold was made by a decree of the King himself, making it not a contractual obligation, but an obligation of the state. Normally the main reason to separate a gold ranked officer from active duty due to an injury was cost. The cost of maintaining a gold rank officer on active duty was prohibitively expensive when they could perform little in the ways of a magi-officer. As such severing their ties to the military was often an economical opportunity. The only problem was that bronze contracts were minor to afford making the idea of keeping Lykan with his Bronze rank contract a steal.

The irony of the fact that Lykan would now be out of the military had he signed the paperwork officially making him a gold ranked officer and thereby extending his time in the military threefold was not lost on Lykan. Especially not as every member of his crew made sure to point out the fact he was now stuck. Everyone but the quiet engineer.

Regardless of the justifications given, Lykan was stuck on rune crafting details, and likely would be until his contract expired in fourteen months. At which point he could either enlist for life, forever set to be a bronze rank soldier doing menial tasks for the country, or he could retire. At this point Lykan was set on retiring.

As happy as he was for having gained his lifelong dream of being able to fly at will, his dream was just as quickly lost from one battle. A battle where he was given a war trophy of a wife, at least that was likely the intended goal. Unfortunately, he was stuck with the woman, as noted by the mandate of the heavens. Her staying by his side was part of the weighed balance.

To make a mandate of the heavens the scales must be balanced. In the battle each side would get peace, so the outcome was for a person. In the Azani’s case, if they won, they would get him. To make the scales balanced, he had to be offered someone in return. That balance naturally came with Nayali, the person who with the wave of her hand easily wiped out a portion of the fleet sent to recapture Dunthir.

People were angry at her for her part in the war, for the fact that no true retaliation was done against the Azani. From the perspective of the common Sidherthan citizen the war ended too early without any real closure. Most saw Nayali as the only person they could take out their anger and frustration on. She wasn’t the only Azani, or person of Azani descendant who was targeted by the rampant hatred of the Sidherthan people. But she unlike all the others could wipe out an entire city street with the wave of her hand.

When Nayali followed Lykan to the city she had been accosted many times. The only reason nothing happened was that each time Lykan was able to get everyone to calm down long enough for Nayali to fly away back to the military base. Fortunately for Lykan his last blessing from the gods’ made others have a modicum of respect for him, as he radiated the blessings of the gods. A fact that shown as he was one of the few people who had his class of Valiant Wanderer fully on display for all to see.

Most were only used to seeing people who had earned the ire of the gods have their class fully on display, those had the title Vagabond, Wastrel, or Scourge appended to their class names. Often these titles appeared after near constant abuse of the class abilities and authorities. Each person with such a scornful title would instantly cause anyone who laid eyes upon them to feel disgust by looking at the person. Kids would know to go on the other side of the street when such a man came as they would be filled with a sense of unease and dread.

Similarly, when people saw Lykan and his title, they would be filled with a sense of hope. People would feel calmer with him around, innately knowing that he would do what was right. There was a time when the idea of bringing Lykan up for war crimes was bandied about. He had acted well above his station, brokering a possible peace treaty that could have ended badly for the country. While peace was part of the bargain whether he won or lost, he still wagered military assets. The military asset being wagered in this case was of course himself, an asset that the military now saw as more of a liability than anything else. The reason for the court-martial could be summed up in one simple word, money. If the army managed to discharge Lykan due to breaking military doctrine, then he would not need to be paid for being injured during his time in service. The only problem was, a trial of his peers, fellow soldiers who had been stopped from being ruthlessly slaughtered would take one look at him and find him innocent. Thus, the request for trial was dropped almost as quickly as it began.

In the end most people found that the best thing to do was wait it out. From the perspective of the military Lykan only had fourteen months left on his contract. While he wasn’t barred from enlisting for life, a few flags were placed on his records that made it so he would be offered only the minimal benefits for his lifelong commitment to the military. As such it was clear, the military didn’t want him to stay long term, but it also didn’t want him to be released right away either. These points were also made abundantly clear by the military crew who had been assigned to work under Lykan. A crew who was now part of the ground unit of what was effectively an RDT assembly line team that applied runes to ships as quickly as possible.

A few of the crew who had signed on to be under a Magi-Officer of Lykan’s renown quickly moved on or were once again re-assigned to ships that would be taking the field. Most notably, the Executive officer, the helmsman, the chef, and the gunners were all quickly scavenged and assigned elsewhere in the fleet.

In the end Lykan was left with only a skeleton crew of four people under his command. There was Deroze the supply clerk, who made sure that the team had enough supplies to continually apply runes. Then the three repairmen who all worked to help apply the runes properly. By this point in the process everyone had their parts down.

Lykan would begin with the outer hull, almost knowing instinctively where to begin applying the anchoring runes for the entire formation. The three-person repair team; Oliveras, Legg, and Avensa all went about the ship measuring parts of the internal and external portions of the hull to find the optimal parts to mark for the next phase of the runes. Of everyone preset on the team only Avensa and Lykan were able to successfully form runes.

Oliveras and Legg were mainly around to mark areas and ensure one set of forged runes would be connected to the next in a logical circuit of power. Then the final lines would lead back to the ship’s generator.

When making his way around the ship he saw the quiet girl Avensa working by herself. Her working by herself wasn’t anything new, but the way she was working intrigued Lykan. Lykan knew she was the only other person on their team who was proficient at etching runes, but the way she managed to etch the runes cased the hairs on Lykan’s neck to rise up. He watched as the relative stranger to the team sat cross legged on the floor, while she both floated and charged runes together.

What Lykan saw amazed him as the act of having all three runes floating in a free state first before linking them with energy was a completely novel concept. Up till this point Lykan had always been under the impression that one had to physically touch the runes being charged. Yet here the runes were floating and being charged in a synchronized manner.

The process also seemed to make it, so the runes were synchronized with a sympathetic link even before they were placed. It was clear that Avensa had not only ample experience with rune writing, but also had a beyond the basic understanding of the process.

Just when Lykan thought to speak or ask about the process the girl spoke.

“So, are you just going to stare all day?” Avensa asked.

Hearing this, Lykan felt flustered. He had approached Avensa from behind, but she had still somehow known he was there.

“How…?” Was all Lykan could muster as a response.

Chortling the girl responded. “How did I know you were here? Simple.” Then she turned and looked at Lykan. No, not at Lykan but past him. It took Lykan a second to see that her eyes were focused solely on a spot in the distance. Following the path of her eyesight Lykan saw Nayali, his wife, concubine? He did not know their official relationship. He did not feel any official malice from the woman, though he knew her whole purpose was to recruit Lykan over to her brother’s side. This was odd, as he figured that much like the Sidherthan military, her brother would no longer want him since he was now considered damaged goods.

“I’ll tell you when you are ready to be alone.” Avensa finished, after grabbing the three floating runes from the air and placing them on the hull.

After seeing the runes, Lykan saw that they were perfect, just like all her work. In fact, much of the functionality seemed to come from the fact that her runes were so robust and able to handle far more stress than his standard runes. Seeing them Lykan shook his head and even touched them.

As he touched, he felt a trickle of energy enter his body. This in and of itself was not weird, as he was constantly absorbing energy that interacted with his body. No, what was odd about this contact was that the energy flowed throughout his body, but then rather than trying to go through his broken meridians, where it would leak out into the void. This energy circled up and into his mind.

Instantly he understood this energy to be Qi, though more questions came from this. First, how? How could she even use Qi? So far, the only people or creatures who used Qi were people who interacted with the dark pillars.

The type of energy coming from the dark pillars was far different than the energy Avensa used to craft her runes. For starters the energy from Avensa was pure, while the energy from Nayali and the Corrupted Psychic Dragon was dark and malevolent. Also, this one sent calming waves throughout his body. Even the parts where it brushed against the damaged meridians felt like aloe had been applied to the scorched and exposed areas. There was a calming effect of the Qi being used that felt calming. Lykan made it a note to get to know Avensa better.

The only problem was that he knew there might be issues with Nayali as Avensa seemed to dislike her for some reason. Though if the state of the opposing Qi was any indication, then he could understand why. They were at their cores completely different, at least in terms of Qi. Just thinking about the Qi that Nayali had used to strike him sent chills running down his spine as he instinctively grabbed for his chest. The area where the partially deflected bolt had landed. Had he not managed to deflect part of the blast Lykan was certain that he would be crippled or worse.

Looking back on the actions Lykan was surprised that the energy he held within was enough to manage to hover for as long as he did at the end of the match. Had the duel not been called, or had he been slightly slower with his reactions the events that unfolded would have been drastically different. As it was, he suffered complete burn out from the results of the fight. Had he realized then how badly his meridians were damaged he could have likely saved his energy to be used for focused healing. But instead, he circled it all wildly in a desperate attempt to move his broken body into a winning position. He suffered complete energy burnout, and what did he get for his efforts? A demotion in rank and almost subjected to a military tribunal. Still things could be worse, or so he told himself so he could calm his mind at night.

Nayali for her part also seemed to have suffered serious wounds from the duel, at the very least the amount of corrupted Qi she had in her body had diminished significantly. It was clear that the Qi in her body was not natural, and thus the more she used the more the foreign energy would be removed from her system. This was almost the inverse effect of what happened to mana from Lykan’s perspective. Mana now seemed to be foreign, or at least completely cut off from his body, as such any mana that did find its way to his body would be absorbed and then discarded.

Still seeing Avensa’s use of Qi made his mind come alive. Could I use Qi like that? He had the ability to use Qi, though sloppily. He wondered if he could in fact learn to use Qi.

Also, he wondered what Qi was? None of the texts in the library had any mention to Qi. When he asked about it, there seemed to be some sort of trade secret associated with it, all he really heard was the word Cerusian. But even that was a hushed whisper that the head librarian let out as more of a silent curse. A silent curse that Lykan with his enhanced senses easily picked up on.

He made it a goal, to one day find time to speak to Avensa in private. He also wanted to ask her if she knew anything about Cerusians. As soon as he set this new goal in place, the aura around Avensa began to change. Before she had been clear, but now she began to glow with a platinum sheen. Seeing this sudden change was good. For the past two months he had been stuck, the only thing he had before him was the slight silvery hue that covered runes. A path he had followed to increase his Master Crafting: Beginner, to the next step.

Skill Base Plus Modifier Rating Master Crafting Beginner + (Silver) Adept

That was it, months of work and recovery to get an Adept level to his Master Crafting skill. All his other skills were effectively on hold. He could practice archery, but the practice fields were only reserved for Academy students or Officers, meaning that his early graduation had hindered any plans to improve that skill. Since he lacked the ability to fly due to damaged meridians it looked like his Aerial Combat and Aerial Movement skills would remain stagnant for quite a while. The only other Skill he could practice was his Unarmed Combat Mastery, but again he had to find a willing partner, and no one wanted to spar with him. Though looking back on it, he had never asked Avensa if she wanted to spar. She had been so quiet and so reclusive that he often forgot she was even there.

Thinking on everything Lykan made a note to talk to the elusive girl some more and see what she could teach him. At the very least it looked like the gods themselves were trying to guide him in that direction if the notification of the platinum path was anything to be aware of.

That was another interesting thing that Lykan had noticed, that he was seemingly the only one able to see the possible future paths in any real standard of color. He did find it odd that the futures directly followed the color schema used by the Sidherthan military, but this proved to only be a coincidence, at least as far as anyone he asked was aware.

Maybe the great Sidhertha had the same sight as I do, but there is no way to find out now. Lykan mused to himself before shaking his head and going about the rest of the tasks he had for today.